On Wednesday, September 11th, the Chillicothe girls tennis team traveled to Carrollton for an all-day individual tournament against five other regional schools — Richmond, Lexington, Odessa, Trenton, and Carrollton. This is a great tournament for the lady hornets each year because they see five similarly sized small MSHSAA Class 1 schools they never see any other time in the season, because of its close proximity, and because of their regular strength at this annual tournament. This year was no different. After a grueling 11 hours of play, the lady hornets walked away with 2nd place overall as a team, a singles medal and four doubles medals.
Coming in as the #1 doubles seed, seniors Bianca Clark and Keeley Shira dominated all day, winning each match easily, earning a spot in the championship match. While that final head-to-head was close, requiring a tie break and then a second match due to double elimination rules, they remained victorious to claim the overall doubles first place medals. Also in doubles, juniors Summer Gatson and Rian Mathews held their own not only against the other #2 doubles teams but against the schools #1 teams eventually earning themselves fourth place overall against all doubles teams. Furthermore, sophomores Jasmine McLean and Lydia Bonderer both entered the tournament as singles entries where they both saw success throughout the morning, gaining wins and also going neck-and-neck with two of the top-seeded singles’ players. Unfortunately, though, as they both battled back through the consolation bracket, they were forced to play each other to proceed through the tournament. By the end of the day, Bonderer had tied for seventh in singles out of a pool of twelve even though she has only been playing tennis for two months, and McLean earned third place overall in singles as she continues to capitalize on her first season of CHS varsity play. All of these wins from Chillicothe’s six athletes helped the team tie for first place against a strong Odessa team, but using “games won” as the tiebreaker, Chillicothe technically went home with second place overall.
Results were as follows:
Doubles #1 — Clark & Shira — 1st place overall — beat Odessa2 6-0, beat Carrollton2 6-1, beat Odessa1 6-1, lost to Carrollton1 6-6 (tiebreak 1-7), beat Carrollton1 6-2
Doubles #2 — Gatson & Mathews — 4th place overall — beat Richmond 6-1, lost to Odessa1 1-6, beat Lexington1 7-5, beat Carrollton2 6-2, lost to Carrollton1 1-6
Singles #1 — McLean — 3rd place overall — beat Trenton2 6-2, lost to Odessa1 5-7, beat Carrollton2 6-1, beat Chillicothe2 6-2, beat Lexington1 6-2, beat Odessa2 6-1, lost to Odessa1 2-6
Singles #2 — Bonderer — tied for 7th place overall — lost to Odessa2 3-6, beat Lexington2 6-0, lost to Chillicothe1 2-6
